Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero

In 1917 a stray dog wanders around the edge of a training camp in Connecticut. A soldier named Robert Conroy feeds him and the dog attaches himself to the unit. He gets aboard the ship to France and spends eighteen months at the front, detecting gas attacks early, finding wounded men, and capturing a German scout. Richard Lanni directs. Helena Bonham Carter narrates as Conroy's sister Margaret, with Logan Lerman and Gérard Depardieu in the cast. The story is real. Stubby served in the First World War, is said to have been given the rank of sergeant in the American army, became a recognised figure at home afterwards, and his preserved hide is in the Smithsonian collection today. Although it is animation for children the film does not soften the war. The trenches, the gas and the losses are shown; there is no blood but there is death, which is not usual in the form. The production worked with military history advisers and kept the uniforms, weapons and front line arrangement accurate. The scale of the animation is modest and technically behind the large studios; the film's strength is its subject rather than its images. Who it is for: families looking for animation and young viewers interested in military history. Who it is not for: the animation is weak, the emotional register is too plain in places, and the story proceeds without conflict.